Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has added the state to a growing list of governments suing Purdue Pharma, the company behind OxyContin, one of the most widely abused prescription painkillers in the country.
The complaint, filed on behalf of Alabama residents, accuses Purdue of violating the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act through the way it marketed and sold opioid medications. State lawyers argue those practices endangered public health and the safety of Alabamians.
Alabama is seeking both monetary damages and court orders to change the company’s conduct. It is joining other states, cities and hospital systems across the country that have targeted the manufacturers of prescription painkillers they blame for the opioid crisis.
The decision marks a shift for Marshall. Speaking to a group in Mobile last year, he said his office had avoided using ‘civil litigation to regulate industries or to coerce windfall settlements,’ and questioned whether suing opioid makers was ‘the right way to go.’
Since then, Marshall has joined a multistate investigation of drugmakers led by a coalition of attorneys general, and he served on an opioid council created by Gov. Kay Ivey that released recommendations late last year.
‘The opioid epidemic has devastated Alabama families, leaving a trail of addiction and death winding through every community of this state,’ Marshall said in announcing the suit. Alabama leads the nation in painkiller prescriptions per capita, and an estimated 30,000 residents over age 17 are dependent on heroin or prescription painkillers, according to figures he cited.
Marshall said he attended a court-ordered settlement conference in Cleveland last month. The state will be represented by two private law firms working under the supervision of attorneys from the Attorney General’s office.